Hotel Ambrose

Chapter 5.5

But it did go back to Ambrose.

When I got there Sophie was up in a tree picking fruit. There were apple trees and peach trees and a pear tree, but no mangoes unfortunately. She already had a good bagful. Her legs were scratched. She jumped down when she saw me.

I suddenly felt like I was going to cry. I didn't want to cry in front of her, so I looked up at the hotel until the feeling went away. "Where's Fred?" I said.

"Upstairs asleep. Why did you take so long?

"Um."

"You got stuff!" she cried.

"The Chinas gave it to me," I said, glad to change the subject. "I have to pay em back though."

She nodded as if she already knew all about the Chinas. "What's wrong?" she said, looking at me closely.

"Nothing."

She picked up one of the bags, and her bag of fruit, gave me another look, then led the way inside.

When we got upstairs I left Sophie in the kitchen to unpack, and went off to put a fresh nappy on Fred.

"Which bedroom did you put him in?" I shouted.

Sophie came in. "This one."

"Great," I said. "He's wandered off."

"Babies don't wander off," she said, panic rising in her voice.

"We'll find him. He wouldn't have gone far."

"It was the Hobgoblin!"

"Aw come on."

"It was! I heard it before. Hobgoblins steal babies! Didn't you know that?"

I didn't. What's more, I thought she was making it up.

"It'll eat him!" she cried.

Jesus she could get worked up when she wanted to.

"You stay here," I said. "I'll go get him. You're a-sterical."

"No I'm not," she said, calming down straight away.

In the end I had to let her come with me. I was kind of glad, actually. I had no idea what was up on the second floor after all – it could have been a hobgoblin for all I knew.

"Hurry, before it gets hungry," she said, taking my hand and pulling me up the stairs. The stairs creaked. That old Hobgoblin would hear us coming for sure, I thought.

Fred cried out from somewhere on the second floor and Sophie's hand tightened over mine.

"Ben, hurry."

There was a door at the top of the stairs. When I opened it I was hit by an incredible smell, like shit and rotten things and garbage and sickness all rolled up together. The carpet was blue, and it was worn bare in places. There was something smeared on the walls. There was no sign of the Hobgoblin. As me and Sophie moved carefully down the hall I got glimpses through open doors of piles of filth and stained bed sheets and broken things.

We were halfway down the hall when I heard something clambering up the next flight of stairs. There was a strange sound from the floor above. I wondered what kind of mouth made a sound like that. It wasn't words – it was just a sound.

We climbed the stairs. I could hear the Hobgoblin lurching along the hallway above now. I wished we'd brought weapons. I had no idea what we were going to do when we cornered it.

The third floor was yellow. It smelled okay – maybe the Hobgoblin didn't come up here much. I heard Fred cry out again, but his cry was cut short, as if the Hobgoblin had clapped its hand over his mouth. It moved fast. We still hadn't caught sight of it. I wondered when it would tire out.

I lost count of all the floors we passed through. I was certain I'd counted five floors from outside the hotel, but now we were at least twelve floors up.

As we hurried to the top of the stairs we heard a thump from up ahead. We stopped and stared down the hallway.

It was as white as snow. The carpet was like the coat of a polar bear, and the lights in the ceiling were almost too bright to look at. The Hobgoblin had fallen over halfway down the hall and it didn't seem to be able to get up. It clutched Fred to itself and moaned. Blood trickled out of its nose and dripped on the floor. The blood looked very red on the bright white carpet. The fiorst thing I noticed about the Hobgoblin was that it was naked. The hair on its head was half black and half grey, and there was shit all down the backs of its legs.  It started making a cooing sound like a pigeon, and pulled Fred up to its breast. That's when I realised what it was.

A woman.

Sophie reached down and pried Fred out of the woman's arms. The woman tried to hang on to him, but she mustn't have been strong enough. Fred gazed unconcernedly up at Sophie.

I squatted down beside the woman to look at her face.

"Jesus Sophie."

"What?"

"It's Joe's mum."